Israel continues ground offensive in Gaza – Guterres calls for “humanitarian ceasefire”

Middle East conflict
Israel continues ground offensive in Gaza – Guterres calls for “humanitarian ceasefire”

While Israel’s military is increasingly advancing against the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip with tank units and fighter jets, the humanitarian situation for the people there is becoming increasingly terrible. Although Israel is still in the north of the While the Gaza Strip’s remaining civilians, including patients in hospitals, called on them to seek safety in the south, thousands of people are still staying at Shifa Hospital, according to TV reports. According to Israeli reports, the hospital also serves as a Hamas command center. Meanwhile, violent anti-Jewish attacks are taking place in the North Caucasus in view of the increasing number of deaths in the Gaza Strip.

Because of the Gaza conflict, anti-Jewish attacks have increased in Russia’s Muslim-dominated North Caucasus. In Makhachkala in the Republic of Dagestan, a crowd of people forced their way into the airport on Sunday evening because a plane from Tel Aviv had landed there, allegedly carrying refugees from Israel. The Russian state news agency Tass reported that more than 20 people were injured in the incident, some seriously. Israel called on Russian authorities to protect its citizens. The USA condemns the anti-Semitic incidents in Dagestan, said the spokeswoman for the National Security Council on Platform X.

Israel wants to facilitate aid deliveries

The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, meanwhile warned Israel and Hamas against violations of international law. “I would like to clearly emphasize to Israel that it must make visible efforts without further delay to ensure that the civilian population receives basic foodstuffs, medicine, anesthetics,” said Khan in Cairo, referring to the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. And to the Hamas ruling party in Gaza and everyone “who is in control there”: The aid must reach the civilian population “and not be misused or diverted from them,” the chief prosecutor warned.

Meanwhile, Israel says it wants to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Elad Goren from the relevant Cogat authority told journalists on Sunday that aid deliveries should be “dramatically increased” in the coming weeks. The water supply in the Gaza Strip is “not at normal levels” but sufficient for humanitarian needs. According to Israeli findings, there is no shortage of food in the Gaza Strip.

Supply situation remains difficult

US President Joe Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday about the catastrophic situation. He made it clear to Netanyahu that significantly more humanitarian aid must reach Gaza “immediately,” the government headquarters in Washington said. In talks with Al-Sisi, the two heads of state committed, among other things, to “significantly speeding up and continually increasing” aid deliveries to Gaza from today onwards.

A convoy of 33 trucks carrying aid arrived in the Gaza Strip on the same day, according to an Israeli media report. It was the largest daily convoy since the start of the war. However, according to aid organizations, this is far from enough to provide for the more than 2.2 million residents. 100 trucks are needed per day.

Guterres calls for a “humanitarian ceasefire”.

Terrorists from Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip, carried out a massacre in Israel on October 7th. Since then, Israel has suffered more than 1,400 deaths. More than 230 people were kidnapped. Meanwhile, the number of casualties in the Gaza Strip continued to rise in the wake of Israel’s violent retaliation. According to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than 8,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began three weeks ago.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General António Guterres again called for an immediate “humanitarian ceasefire” and the release of over 230 hostages. In the Gaza Strip, “a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding before our eyes,” said Guterres on the X platform. Over the weekend, people in Gaza looted UN food warehouses. “This is a worrying sign that after three weeks of war and a tight siege on Gaza, civil order is slowly breaking down,” said Thomas White, UNRWA head in the Gaza Strip.

Tens of thousands of civilians are still in northern Gaza

Meanwhile, more and more Israeli ground troops are advancing against Hamas in the Gaza Strip with battle tanks combined with fighter aircraft. The declared goal is to destroy the Islamist organization. For weeks, Israel has been calling on the civilian population in the city of Gaza and in the north to move to the south of the coastal strip for their own safety. But there are air strikes there too. Israeli media reported that Hamas had concentrated around 30,000 people around the Shifa hospital in Gaza alone to serve as “human shields.” This was intended to prevent Israel from attacking their underground command center.

Meanwhile, Israel’s army said it was once again firing on targets in neighboring Syria in response to rocket attacks. A fighter jet hit “military infrastructure” on Syrian soil, the Israeli military said on Monday night. The situation on Israel’s northern external borders has been extremely tense since the Hamas massacre and Israel’s subsequent counterattacks. According to the Israeli army, several rockets were fired at Israel from Lebanon on Sunday. In response, Lebanese Hezbollah targets were attacked.

Israel has now initiated a new phase of its military operation in the Gaza Strip, and rocket fire from the Gaza Strip continues. Meanwhile, efforts are underway to release those kidnapped into the Gaza Strip.